The “GHS Joy” Bible Study met for the first time on Tuesday, Jan. 17. Created by freshman Willa Scholten, the group started with 12 members and continues to grow. The group’s presence has spread by word of mouth around the school and on their Instagram account.
“I want to grow this club by continuing to post on Instagram, but eventually, hopefully, planning events as fundraisers for charities,” Scholten said. “This will spread the goodness of God and also make more people aware of the Bible Study.”
One of the main goals of the new group is to cover the basics of their faith before moving on to harder topics. In order to do that, the group started at the beginning of the New Testament, which is Jesus’ birth.
“I started the reading plan with the Gospels, because knowing the Gospel is important to understanding the rest of the Bible,” Scholten said. “There is a lot of correlation between the (books) Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, and the rest of the Bible.”
Even though there are other Christian groups in and connected to Gretna, the point of this Bible study is to just give students one more opportunity to connect with each other and with Jesus.
“For Campus Life and FCA, I don’t feel like it is competition for people to come because if someone chooses FCA or campus life over my Bible study, I’m just glad they’re so excited about God and that they want to join an extracurricular to learn more about God,” Scholten said.
The group also plans on doing more than just reading the Bible in their time together. For example, a couple of weeks ago, the group hid “little Jesus” plastic figurines around the school with Bible verses attached to them. This trend has been growing on social media and in churches.
“This last meeting was the first one that I went to, but I would say it was just a very good discussion, and it was just very respectful. The fact that we’re getting together is my favorite part,” junior Mia Glatter said.
While there has been a good amount of people showing up to the Bible study, there can be roadblocks to attendance. With a group like this, students are often hesitant to join in, do not know enough people to want to go or just can not go because of sports practice right after school. If you are not coming to the group because of limits in your control, junior Olivia Carpick said she encourages anyone to reach out and step out of their comfort zone.
“If you are on the fence about coming, no one is going to, like, be mean to you,” Carpick said. “If you are on the fence and you have time, try it once. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to come back.”
The group plans to meet all the way up until the week before the last week of school. They also plan to continue the Bible study in future years to give new students a chance to learn with their peers.
